Blithering and Dithering
by LuminereLucifer
Summary: Nico stands outside Cabin Three Drabble


The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the only thoughts running through Nico's head were; _"Kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me."_

It was like someone had poured a bucket of magnesium filings into his lungs. Nico could hardly breathe, and, no, scratch that - his _marrow _was filled with magnesium filings too. He had been standing outside Cabin Three for the better part of an hour, and had succeeded in moving his (trembling) hand so that it was only _six centimeters _away from the doorknob.

Progress.

With a jerky movement, he drew his hand back again, clutching it with the other as if he could stop it from returning there on its own accord. For a time, he busied himself, fiddling with a loose thread that protruded from the cuff of his jacket, which was flicking back and forth in the easy breeze like the tail of an ill-tempered cat. "_Wait what?! Cats, Nico? Seriously? You're telling me that you're sooo focused you're going to stand here and think about cats?!_" It felt as if his brain had been trampled all over by Chiron, maybe mistaken for cereal by Demter who had added milk and stirred well, so he continued staring at the bronze door dumbly, an infinite number of thoughts- all equally trivial- seemingly clamouring for his attention all at once.

Maybe he was just trying to distract himself.

Maybe he'd gone crazy.

_"I can't do this," _he thought finally, when the sun had slid high up enough into the sky that light was peeking over the top of the cabin, making him squint. He glanced down at his shaky hands unseeingly. "_Some things are better left unsai-"_ His thoughts were interrupted when he was suddenly slammed into a temporary blackness as the door opened, making unfortunate contact with his face. The next thing he knew, he was sprawled on the ground at the bottom of the steps, blinking hard.

"Oh my Gods, Nico, are you okay? I didn't see you." A familiar voice broke through the fluctuating dizziness, and alarm bells shrieked in Nico's head. Opening his eyes, he saw the silhouette he'd expected, illuminated ironically by a halo of light coming from what was presumably the Sun, or possibly by way of some kind of moronic prank of Apollo's. Nico scrambled to a standing position, hurriedly brushing away a few leaves and twigs that clung to his clothing. Percy stood before him, concern in his turquoise eyes. He looked, well... heroic. Riptide was strapped to his back- he was obviously heading out to practice. Uncomfortable under his gaze, Nico gave a curt nod, somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of the guy he'd been working up the courage all day to see. He swallowed, muttered a meek greeting, searched desperately for a topic of conversation (although all he could hear inside his head were the words _"SAY SOMETHING!" _on a near endless loop.) Before he understood what was happening, sudden vertigo hit the flustered demigod full on like a charging bronze bull, and he swayed unsteadily on his feet. Percy darted forward and caught him before he could fall again.

The son of Hades could feel the blood rush to his cheeks. He went rigid under the physical contact, unable to squash down a rush of hysteria.

"Woah, did you hit your head or something?" The words were spoken into his ear- he could practically feel Percy's breath as he asked the question.

Without warning, Nico sprang away.

"I'm _fine._" he choked out, not sounding fine at all. _"Damn, damn, damn, my voice shook. He must've heard that. He had to've heard that." _For a dangerously long moment, it looked like the older demigod was going to persist, but he seemed to think better of it. Instead, he asked;

"What are you doing blithering about out here anyway?" In answer, Nico waved a dismissive hand, eager to discover if he could at least get something out if he rushed into it- if he did't halt to hesitate.

"That's not important right now-" he began, and then stopped dead. (Pun not intended?) "Wait, what?" There was nothing but bafflement in Nico's question. Percy blinked at him, equally confused. "The blithering." Nico tried to clarify.

"The blithering?" In a gesture that was almost comical, the son of Poseidon scratched his head in bewilderment.

"Well- yeah," Nico babbled, about ninety percent of his consciousness had launched into a full-blow panic, unable to process what was coming out of his mouth. The other ten percent was screaming at him to shut up, to _stop talking._ Sadly, this was mostly drowned out by the incoherent frenzy of horror that outnumbered it. "It's not blithering is it? You don't say "she dithered before gong inside." At least, I don't think you do, I dunno. I though it was dithering? Like; "after dithering at the door for several moments she entered." Blithering is like, "blithering" idiot, right?"

There came a pause.

A long pause.

A _very _long pause.

"...Maybe?" he added, (super suave) biting his lip.

o0oΩo0o

Annabeth's hand slipped from propping her up, and she almost hit her head on the desk. She had pulled an all-nighter with the help of a ridiculous amount of caffeine, trying to put some finishing touches on her designs for Olympus. Alone in the Cabin, she gave a long, heavy sigh of exasperation when she heard a knock at the door so quiet it almost came off as diffident, and realized that she would have to be the one to answer. Dragging herself to her feet, she muttered a stream of Greek curses under her breath, wishing death upon whoever was bothering her, and yanked the door open violently. It banged loudly against the wall, exposing a terror-stricken Nico, frozen, his hand still out in front of him from when he had knocked, with Percy who somehow looked even more petrified cowering behind him.

"I told you we shouldn't have bothered her!" he whispered insufferably loudly. "She gets like this if she hasn't slept!"

"Shut up!" Nico hissed back, still staring at Annabeth like he might conceivably disintegrate under the weight of her gaze at any second. "This was your idea anyway!"

"What. Do. You. Want?!" Annabeth rumbled, and the pair jumped- actually leapt a centimetre or two off the ground.

"N-N-N-Nothing!" Nico was quick to yelp, backing away from the seething Beast and crashing into Percy.

"No way," The Daughter of Athena growled, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring daggers at her boyfriend "would you be disturbing me right now if you didn't have a _great _reason for it. Is Camp Half Blood on fire?"

Percy gave an involuntary gulp. "No! It's not important. We'll just leave you to it-"

"You're not leaving until you tell me what you came here for." Annabeth declared, very slowly and deliberately, as if on the verge of loosing it.

"W-Well," Nico was wringing his hands now, dark eyes darting round nervously. "W-W-We were just... we were just wondering..."

Percy finished for him. "You don't happen to have a dictionary anywhere, do you?"

Wordlessly, Annabeth grabbed the nearest volume she could find- which just so happened to be an etremely heavy volume, extended for those who wished to expand their vocabulary and chucked it in the general direction of his head, before slamming the door shut in their faces, and stumbling back over to her laptop.


End file.
